Anthropology of religion

Archaeological Anthropology Question 1: First Appearances of Religion When we think of religion, we often are reminded or churches or temples, morality, and an all-powerful, all-knowing, and benevolent being often referred to as a God, Goddess, or in some forms of recent religions, multitudes of the formers. As cited by the Oxford Dictionary there is one common definition of religion which is the “The belief in and worship of a superhuman controlling power, especially a personal God or gods.” Subsequently, this is the most prominent idea when we think about religion. On the contrary, there is a definition which explains religion as “ A pursuit or interest followed with great devotion.” which may refer to an older and less thought of form…

In “Anthropology and Religion”, Robert L. Winzeler discusses religion and what it is in terms of the vast ranges of societies known to anthropology (1). He first discusses that terms for religion really do not exist in other places and are not necessarily the same within all of them (Winzeler, 2). For example, Winzeler says, “Neither the Chinese nor the Japanese have a single traditional term that is the simple equivalent of the Western notion of religion”, meaning that in both Japanese and…

luck. The habit of saying “bless you” after someone sneezes was a magical practice meant to protect the sneezer from evil spirits or bad luck, but in recent time the magical meaning of the action has faded away and the practice is just habit. When dealing with machines and computers people sometimes try to solve the problem by kicking or hitting the problematic machine, although many times this does nothing to solve the problem. People also have developed the tendency to yell at and threaten…

Ebrouis was a town that believed in the supernaturals and superstitions, and there was many accusations were made. The most famous accusation in Ebrouis was on October 1st, 1623. A huge announcement was made, and the announcement was Noel Benton was happily engaged to his fiancee, Myra Chambers. Noel Benton was the town's doctor and son the mayor and made a fulsome income. Myra Chambers was known as the fairest maiden in the town and adored by all. Noel said to his fiancee, "Darling, you made…

Fetishism: Then and Now The term "fetishism" was first used in the 1800s but there were other names for different types of fetishes before this time. The word fetish came from the Portuguese word 'feitico', which means 'obsessive fascination' (Psychology Today, 2017 ). There are three basic types of fetishes. A fetish of an inanimate object, any part of the human body, and something odd like leather or feathers. With regards to specific fetishes such as that the fetishist usually needs to…

idea is a good one, Enoch decides to use some magic. He transforms the dinner into a ritual revolving around the god Jupiter, because “Jupiter is the god of business success” (Luhrmann 131). To do this they make everything blue or purple, and all the table settings and decoration at the dinner come in sets of four. These colors and the number four all have connections to Jupiter. At the dinner, Enoch never gets around to discussing his idea, and it initially appears as if the ceremony didn’t…

Anthropology study of human beings throughout history, whether in the past or in the present. A simpler way to put it is anthropology is the study of human beans their origin, societies, and cultures. Anthropology shows us how human beings no matter how different they are from our society and culture give meaning to their lives. In chapter 1 we learn the different applications of anthropology from linguistic anthropology to forensic anthropology. There are so many different divisions of…

Anthropology is the science of humans; this particular science is dedicated to the comparative study of humans as physical and cultural beings. Cultural anthropology and Physical anthropology are two distinct specialties within the broader discipline. Early on when anthropologists studied physical anthropology, they were studying humans as biological organisms based on fossil remains containing DNA. Cultural anthropology studies human beings by examining the culture of different groups and…

starting point and has acted as a base for anthropologists’ views and concepts. Anthropology and colonialism have always gone hand in hand when examining the beginnings of societies and cultures. Colonialism offers and clear understanding of policy and practices that can acquire up to full political control over the country itself or other countries, it focus on those who have settled on the land and have created the base foundations of utilizing the land in which they have settled for economic…

The study of Anthropology has proven to be flexible in the way in which cultures are studied. From when the study first began to the 20th century, many different ways of viewing culture have been documented, and many of those ways have been refuted. Our analyses of different anthropologists starts with Tylor a 19th century evolutionary anthropologist and ends with Malinowski a 20th century functional anthropologist. What falls between them are Boas and his student Kroeber. All four of them have…